No Question: Quenneville gets best of Kane, Chicago Blackhawks

Over the course of his 10-year coaching stint with the Blackhawks, Joel Quenneville had a front-row seat to hundreds of Patrick Kane's goals.

Never in a million years would Quenneville have wanted to see any of them overturned.

But when you're on the opposing bench, all of that changes.

And Quenneville definitely proved that when he got Kane's first-period goal overturned Sunday during Florida's 5-2 victory over the Blackhawks.

"He was upset," said a smiling Quenneville, who was hired by the Panthers before the 2019-20 season. "He gave me (stuff) for calling (it). At the beginning of the second, he gave me that look."

The goal was a thing of beauty as Kane buried a one-timer off a perfectly place Spin-o-Rama pass from rookie center Pius Suter. It should have given the Hawks a 1-0 lead with 7:28 remaining, but Kane entered the offensive zone too soon and the play was deemed offsides after Quenneville called for a review.

"Our guys were right on it right away," Quenneville said. "The replay was right under my feet instantly. One of the first times I've ever told the referee, 'It's absolutely offside.'"

Florida, which was playing its season opener, opened the scoring 12 seconds into the second period, then made it 2-0 after yet another goalie gaffe by the Hawks led to an easy score.

The sequence began when Jonathan Huberdeau received the puck 10 feet to the left of goalie Collin Delia and proceeded to slide it across ice. Delia ended up venturing too far outside the crease, then fell awkwardly after tripping teammate Adam Boqvist.

The clown-car scene concluded when Florida's Keith Yandle retrieved the loose puck and zinged it home to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead at 5:32.

The Hawks did tie the game on goals by Alex DeBrincat (at 12:24 of the second) and Connor Murphy (at 2:53 of the third), but Florida wasted no time in regaining the lead as Eetu Luostarinen beat Delia 22 seconds after Murphy's tally.

The Panthers then went up 4-2 on Patric Hornqvist's goal 2.5 minutes later.

"It's a tough pill to swallow, certainly," said coach Jeremy Colliton. "You want to see the team use that breakthrough as a chance to just totally take over the game. Instead, they come back the other way and score.

"We're not there yet. Obviously. So we'll go back to work tomorrow. That's the only way to do it, is to work through it."

The Hawks, who have been outscored 15-5, play Florida again Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Oops!

While sitting in a Zoom meeting last week, Patrick Kane noticed that John Quenneville was wearing an amusing hat.

So Kane fired off what he thought was a "Nice hat!" text to his teammate. One problem: He'd sent it to the wrong Quenneville.

"Of course I look up and it's actually to Joel," Kane said. "So I said, 'wrong text' right away and then we maybe exchanged one or two more."

Kane isn't in contact with his former coach often, but Quenneville did reach out after Kane became a dad in November.

"Always nice to see him, always nice to talk to him," Kane said. "He means a lot to us."

Slap shots:

The Blackhawks placed Nick Seeler on unconditional waivers last week because the defenseman did not report to his AHL assignment. Seeler cleared and is now free to be picked up by any team. ... Jeremy Colliton said Brent Seabrook (lower back) has not resumed skating. ... The Hawks have a power-play goal in all three games.

He said it:

"Duncs needs a haircut."

Joel Quenneville on Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith

He said it II:

"Wish him nothing but the best and hopefully he gets (back) and we get to see him rather shortly."

Joel Quenneville on Jonathan Toews. The two did communicate via text after Toews announced he's dealing with an undisclosed illness